


An Unexpected Occurrence

by Tezca



Category: Adam Ruins Everything (TV)
Genre: Alternative Universe - Mermaid, F/M, Gen, Happy Ending, alternative universe, little angst, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-13
Updated: 2019-07-13
Packaged: 2020-06-27 18:06:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19796203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tezca/pseuds/Tezca
Summary: One minute you're with a friend planning a birthday surprise, the next minute you're someplace else.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fic takes place in the same mermaid au verse as the other two mermaid au fics I've written.

It was at this moment that a mistake was made. A huge one. One that brought a cold chill of gut crushing horror over Veronica’s body. She was frozen in place as her mind tried to zero on what went wrong. She can tell you what had just happened, but not when the mistake had occurred. Her mind failed her, mentally scratching around for clues to no avail. All she could do was float underwater helplessly as she watched Emily - now in fish form - swim away from view. Reverted to a primal state way of life.

The only bright spot in all of this was that the transformation was temporary.

And on the day before Adam’s birthday, yeah this was shaping to be such a fun day. Her and Emily doing a trial run of what she - apparently - thought was a mermaid transformation spell. The latter thought that would be a great way to surprise Adam. Turn into a mermaid, they have their fun and by the end of the day, Emily would revert back to her given form. That was the plan in theory.

She had felt honored in a way that one of her friends enlisted her help with this. Veronica had always been game for planning something like this. Especially when she has a chance to put her magical knowledge to use. Growing up only half mermaid/human had got her feeling a little insecure in that department. She wanted to prove to herself that she can handle a more advanced spell just as well as a full-blooded mermaid.

Objectively it would be no problem - and she knew this - but one’s mind can be finicky and riddled with brain worms who’d have you overthinking stuff. And when hit with a very unexpected development, one can get overwhelmed by the reality of things.

Now here she was on the beach under the troubled gaze of the Conover siblings. Everything had just been explained in good detail. Now all that was left was to awkwardly look down in shame. She felt every bit like a kid who knew they were about to be grounded for a month. Or - to put it in more adult terms - like a criminal who is all but officially charged with life without parole.

It took several seconds to be fully sunk it. Several seconds that felt like an eternity before either Rhea or Adam spoke. And it was the latter. Calm and collected, yet there was a detectable amount of furious and panic and worry all mixed into one.

Adam took a deep breath before he carefully spoke with painful clarity, “Which way did Emily go?”

“Out towards the ocean, west I think,” Veronica answered and Adam immediately bolted towards the ocean. Yeah that didn’t raise any more reminders that she royally fucked up. It was pretty clear time was very much of the essence.

“Is Emily going to be ok?” She asked worried as she faced Rhea. She can feel herself shaking as if she was on vibrate mode.

“We better hope she is,” Rhea said. She faced her after she watched her brother disappear under the waves. A heavy, awkward silence passed between them for a few seconds, “You honestly have no clue what went wrong?!”

Veronica apologetically shook her head. She might as well be ten years old who’s about to get scolded for an hour. Or two.

“You forgot to add in a mermaid scale! That alone makes all the difference in a transformation spell! What’s fucking worse is that means you recited the right incantation with the wrong potion! You can’t mix and match this stuff!”  
_________________

Somewhere off the coast of Hawaii underneath pristine blue waters, there was a young mermaid. Not too far from shore but secluded enough that there’s practically no chance she could run into a scuba diver. Probably helps that she was in her human form. Less chance to be discovered from afar and easier to sequester herself from the world.

At one point Caitlin grew bored of sitting down on the edge where the relatively shallow waters meet the deep ocean. Might as well take a leisurely dive, she just stick alongside the wall of the rocky plateau. There was no reason to swim further ahead. Plus she had to fly back to L.A. tomorrow. She just wasn’t ready to head back to her parent’s beach place.

Oh, why the hell did her old college ex-boyfriend have to unexpectedly show up? She didn’t know why he was there...probably asking for some kind of help. Her parents did have a statewide reputation of being well-known morticians that would always help anyone who needed it. And so was she! Her parents raised her to be a well mannered young woman known for her Southern-esqe generosity.

She didn’t stay too long to find out since she quietly slipped out the back door. Maybe it was a bad way to handle it - and it probably was- but her anxious mind got the better of her. She was an adult damn it. A funeral business owning one. She should be able to buck up enough. Plus her parents were there and would defuse the situation if her ex turned out to be, well, an immature child about it.

Not that she was any better. She didn’t want to face someone who broke up with her cause “dating a death-obsessed gothic nerd was awkward.” It was laughable in hindsight. The pot calling the kettle black even. Yes, she was interested in the morbid, but she wasn’t obnoxious about it like he was about his stupid cars and name brand clothes. Too sucked into the idea of wanting to look cool and being a famous model.

Caitlin decided she’ll give herself about ten to fifteen more minutes before heading back. Down into the darker water she goes, nothing wasn’t out of the ordinary. Underwater creatures went along their merry way. The diffused rays of the sun shone through down into the even darker abyss below. The first inkling of something amiss was when she approached a small cliff

She almost didn’t catch the subtle movement. The blissful movements of the hair. It was damn near imperceptible, but it was enough to stop her in her tracks.

“Dead floaty corpse!” Caitlin let out rather frightfully loud. Luckily it was just her in the immediate area. She would feel extra awkward about it seeing how she is an adult otherwise. She couldn’t help it though. Just the very idea of dying deep down in an underwater cave and meeting a tangled up corpse makes her want to nope the fuck out of Nopeville.

There was a human figure lying peacefully below. As if someone was just taking an underwater nap. For all intent and purposes, it looked to be another unfortunate scuba diving victim. However, the more she gazed at the figure, the more she felt something was off. There was no scuba diving suit or equipment. No oxygen tanks or anything of the sort. That became more apparent when she slowly swam closer. It was a human female dressed in a summer blouse and jeans.

Oh shit, there’s a more unsettling thought. If she wasn’t a deep-sea diver, then...she might’ve been a tourist/local who got caught in a riptide. Her family and friends could be wondering where she was. Her heart sank for the poor woman. So young too. The least she can do is to retrieve the body and...she just suddenly move to sit up.

“It’s alive!” Ok, that was a reaction worthy of a facepalm. Really Caitlin? She closed her eyes for a second to settle her brain down. She reprimanded herself under her breath, “Get it together Caitlin, take a deep breath.”

She would guess that perhaps the female wasn’t a human and in fact a mermaid in disguise. Her sixth sense put that theory to bed, so there was only one logical explanation. This was a human female who knew about the existence of mermaids and magic.

With that realization, she immediately swam down. The woman didn’t seem to register her presence when she sat next to her. She just kept her gaze ahead.

“Hey, um,” At least the sound of her voice caught her attention, “My name’s Caitlin, nice to meet you.”

The glazed over look of the other woman’s eyes told her something was up. She got the feeling she wasn’t mostly all there. For now anyway. That gut feeling increased when she didn’t get any coherent response. Just a series of soft grunts and noise. Yeah, some asshole definitely put some kind of a spell on this poor woman. Or it could be an accident, but she had enough know-how about the similarities between mermaids and humans to go with the first theory.

“Are you alright? Can you speak?”

Another attempt was made from the other person but all Caitlin could hear was the same. Grunts, just a little louder this time. This wasn’t good at all, did this asshole take away her voice?

“I guess you’re having trouble...well it’s ok,” Caitlin casually assured her while she placed a friendly hand on her back, “I can just, um, read your mind instead. You can’t read mine obviously but it should be no big deal. What’s your name?”

“Em...Emily…”

Even her thinking voice didn’t seem to be all there. It was meek and soft as if she was about to drift out of consciousness. In fact, it appeared as if her mind was running on backup power. Not too much activity, just enough to be kept alive and moving around somewhat.

“Are you alright? Do you know where you are?”

“No….”

There was an expectant pause afterward, Caitlin waiting to see if there would be more. Instead, Emily looked ahead absentmindedly. The same blank expression was still prevalent in her eyes. Her posture listless, almost to the point of falling backwards. As if she was checked out and contented with letting the world pass her.

“You’re in Hawaii,” Caitlin helpfully replied with a casual smile, “I live in L.A. but I’m here visiting my parents.”

A few seconds passed in silence, each one distressed her more. Her new friend wasn’t responding, didn’t seem to be any more aware than before. All she can hear from her was her steady breathing.

Just then the other woman slumped over to the side. Alarm bells drastically increased as Caitlin caught her. Yep, now was the time to get the hell back and get her some help. So what if someone awkward was at her parents help? Getting this person help trumps the old romance problem by a mile. 


	2. Chapter 2

Caitlin put one of Emily’s arms around her neck and held onto her in a confident grip. A shot of adrenaline rushed through her and took a second to take a calming breath. She pushed herself off the edge and started to swim up. She climbed up to the edge and did a cursory check to make sure they were alone before she continued on. It would do them no good if someone were to spot them. It would be a world of extreme awkwardness on more than one level.

Once out of the water, Emily didn’t appear to perk up at all. If anything she became a little more sluggish. Luckily - for both of them really - Emily was still able to move along, albeit slowly. Her parent's place wasn’t too far away thank god. However, each step they took made it felt like it would be forever before they arrive.

About halfway through Caitlin became aware that Emily’s body began to feel more and more heavily against her. Emily was still moving, but it felt more and more like a great effort for her to move her legs. More worrisome was that her breathing slowly became more labored. More heavy with each second passing.

“Emily are you alright?!” Caitlin stopped, alarmed. This was definitely out of the ordinary. She’s human! With that alone, she should be able to breathe oxygen just fine! And this wasn’t any indication that she was really a mermaid mind you. Mermaids were born able to breathe both ways.

So why the hell was she panting hard? One wouldn’t think she would have a hard time if someone gave her the ability to breathe underwater. Was the spell messed up? Or did someone cursed her to not breathe on land as easily. That is an unfortunate thing among her people. Some big asshole mermaid would curse others to have a hard time breathing underwater, therefore forcing them to go on land.

It would be really easy to turn that spell around and curse a human to have trouble breathing oxygen.

But if that was the case then wouldn’t it be more readily apparent? Emily’s face would’ve suddenly turned blue mere seconds after they got out of the water. And that was several minutes ago. No something else was going on, but it was definitely mermaid in nature.   
“You’re going to be ok Emily, we’re almost there,” Caitlin gently informed Emily in lieu of a response. She picked up the pace right as Emily’s legs buckled. Caitlin being a little taller than Emily allowed her to keep Emily from completely falling down. Instead, she picked her up into her arms. The heaviness of her breathing still hadn’t gotten any better. It was louder this time.

Emily’s eyes were closed, and the sudden sense of sweat on her skin caught her attention. That didn’t bode well. No one should be sweating on a day that was supposed to be 68 degrees. Unless they were exercising or doing something strenuous. She stood Emily up in order to free her hand up to feel her forehead. There was definitely sweat. Enough to fill up a small pool pretty much. On her cheeks, her arms, even the top of her hair was wet!

Caitlin immediately decided to check her phone for something. She looked at the weather app and it told her what she expected. Emily should not be sweating this much already. The information juxtapositioned with what was happening. For this to make sense, she would’ve had to run or walked hard for an hour or two in Death Valley or the Mojave Desert.

She was about to start heading back when she heard the familiar ding of a text message. It wasn’t from her phone so she looked over at Emily. It had to be her phone and there it was, in her pocket. It was going off like crazy. Caitlin put her phone away and grabbed Emily’s phone. Her eyes widen in recognition, all the text messages were from one Adam Conover. He was one of her friends, met via the book club they both go too.

Which meant the person she found had to be the same Emily that was his girlfriend! Adam had talked about her plenty of times before, she just hadn’t met her. Until now, obviously. What an awkward way to meet someone, but it could’ve been a much worse situation. All of Adam’s messages were asking desperately if she was ok and asking where she was.

This just made things a little easier since now she knew what to do next. Which was to text Adam on her own phone.

‘She’s alive! I found her!’

A second later the phone rang. She picked it up, the sound of great relief can be heard, but it was short-lived. Caitlin explained everything that happened so far.

“....You have to take her back to the ocean now!” Adam’s voice rose in urgency on the other side. Caitlin felt a sense of anxiety as she felt the temperature drop around her.

“What?! What happened?!” She looked over her shoulder at the ocean then back towards the back windows. She noticed her parents were now talking to a couple of elderly ladies. Yeah, that was going to make the situation more troublesome than its worth. She snapped them both invisible to eliminate the chance of being noticed.

“Transformation spell went wrong, her body basically confused now go! I’ll call you back soon,” Adam hung up and Caitlin was left silent as her mind process the new information for a brief moment.

She sprung into action a few seconds later. She picked up Emily and made a mad dash back to the water. Once back under, Emily’s breathing became much smoother. Less labored and more relaxed as Caitlin swam towards the deeper waters. She decided to head for the same spot she found Emily.

Adam called again just as she laid Emily down. She noticed Emily had an easier time moving around a bit under here. This was still odd, she was no closer to any answers than before. Aside from what Adam told her.

“I got us down under,” Caitlin felt a little nervous. If the situation wasn’t so dire then she would make a light chuckle. Plus, she wasn’t sure what the next move should be. She was practically a kid compared to Adam and Rhea. Only born 34 years ago as opposed to a century.

“Great, is she breathing any better?” Adam replied. Caitlin could hear the water in the background and the telltale sounds of seagulls. He must be at one of the beaches in L.A.

“Yeah it’s stable, but she doesn't look anymore...animated than how I found her.”

“Alright, she should be good still. That’s ‘cause of the transformation screwup I mentioned earlier.”

“What happened?”

A slight pause before a sober, subtly raw voice came over the speaker, “Emily wanted to surprise me for my birthday. Temporarily turn into a mermaid but instead what happened was her friend said the right words with the wrong spell. Turned her into a fish.”

“Oh boy...I would be really nervous even thinking to attempt one of those kinds of spells.”

“It’s easy once you got the hang of it, but you have to be careful not to mix any of them up. If you take a look inside you’ll see why.”

“Kinda like some...magical autopsy?” Caitlin clarified. Why was that the first analog she thought of? Felt like it wasn’t completely appropriate but it sounded the closest.

“Uhh...kinda yeah. Put an aura over her and look inside her with your mind. Do you know how to do that?” Adam asked.

Caitlin nodded, despite only being on the phone. She had done it once or twice early in her career to figure out where to stick the needle full of embalming fluid.

“I believe so, yes.”

“Good.”

Caitlin left him on speakerphone as she set the phone down. She proceeded to do as he said. Calming aura, close eyes and let her mind travel through. She mentally peeled back the skin, down to a certain point mind you. Too far down and she felt like she was intruding. This was enough.

She mentally peeled back the skin and quickly saw what was going on. There was a trace of two different spells still fighting in her veins. She can sense it even in the fiber of her muscles. The result was that while most of her organs were a scrambled mess of the two, the most important one was very much not human.

“Her respiratory system screwed up! Oh...that’s why she had a hard time breathing on land,” Caitlin realized out loud.

“Yeah, right now it's essentially as if someone transformed a fish into a human but did a half-ass job.”

“Shit,” Caitlin peered down at Emily as she let the aura dissipated for the time being, “Is there anything I can do Adam? This sounded like it was just an accident,” Thank god it was that instead of her first theory.

“It was. Her friend didn’t know what she was doing. Rhea scolded her ass off,” Adam mentioned as more of an afterthought before he returned to seriousness, “Do you have any experiences dealing with a transformation spell?”

“I...uhh...not enough to feel super confident on anything organic,” Caitlin replied apologetically. That was on the list of things she wanted to practice magic wise. She just had been too nervous to start practicing on anything other than inanimate objects.

“That’s fine, I can fix it when I get there. Just do a basic healing spell on her. The only problem is she won’t be able to breathe air for too long for the time being.” The sounds of feet hitting the water can be heard at this moment, “You said you were Hawaii right? It’s going to be about two or three days before I reach you.”

There goes that flight to L.A tomorrow. Staying with Emily was a higher priority right now. 


	3. Chapter 3

_‘We’re all gonna die someday lord, we’re all gonna die someday…’_

“What the hell…” Emily murmured to herself as she slowly stirred awake. The - oddly upbeat - morbid song stopped a second later. She still felt groggy, a bit hungover even as if she had one too many the night before. She had the headache to go along with it - albeit a mild, short-lived one -. In any case, she’s been to that rodeo enough times to not be too fazed.

What did faze her was the fact her memory didn’t seem to correlate with the physical symptoms. She couldn’t remember anything! And it was very rare for her to get blackout drunk. Hopefully it won’t be a huge deal, obviously Adam must’ve taken them both home before she passed out.

She groaned softly as she got out from under the covers. Her mind was still foggy. Nothing like a cup of coffee couldn’t fix. She stretched and slowly walked to the door. Turned out she didn’t need a shot of caffeine to fully wake up. The sight of another woman in the kitchen was enough.

“You’re not Adam!” Emily blurted out, startled. It was now that her mind fully registered her surroundings. She looked around, yeah this wasn’t her home. She looked out towards the back window and noticed there was sand. And gentle waves in the distance.

“I’m...gonna have to call you back,” Caitlin said a little awkwardly into the phone. She hung up as she faced Emily. How the hell was she going to start the whole explanation off? There was a noticeable amount of awkwardness in the air, “Um, hello.”

“Who are you?....” Emily asked, confused. Where was Adam? Who was this woman? There was some vague familiarity but she was sure she hadn’t met her before. At least not anytime recently. She felt lost, at least she seemed to be what looks like Malibu Beach. Well, hopefully. She really didn’t want to entertain the thought she could’ve been kidnapped.

“I’m, uhh, Caitlin…and no I’m not Adam,” A brief moment ensued, “I do know him though. We go to bookclub together.”

Emily mulled through her memories, now that name did feel familiar. Adam must’ve mentioned her a few times regarding bookclub. Her memory was still annoyingly fuzzy, like a dirty opaque window that only allowed a blurred up view of the world outside.

She groaned softly in frustration, her mind was being stubbornly slow in clearing up. She rubbed her eyes in an attempt to wake her brain up more, “Ugh, I don’t remember anything from last night,” She absentmindedly said.

“What was the last thing you remember?” Caitlin asked, gently and concerned. She walked a couple small steps closer to Emily.

“Being on Malibu Beach with another friend of mine. We were doing something for Adam’s birthday.” The very last thing she remembered was being underwater. She had faced Veronica as she chanted the words and send the magic over her. After that, it was a blur, “Holy shit his birthday, it’s today! Do you know where Adam is?”

Caitlin took in a breath. Emily could tell she had an awkward demeanor as she looked elsewhere absentmindedly. This didn’t bode so well with her. She got the feeling she was about to be ruined so to speak.

“Actually his birthday was a few days ago. Today’s the 6th,” Caitlin replied apologetically.

Emily’s eyes widen in complete shock. She sure as hell didn’t expect that, “What!?”

“Also you’re in, um, Hawaii,” Caitlin added, a little nervously.

“What?! No, no…. I can’t be in Hawaii, that’ll be impossible unless…” Emily paused, consternated as she looked down in brief thought. She hastily took a step back a second later and gave an accusatory finger in Caitlin’s direction, “Unless you kidnapped me! Somehow...” She finished a little unsure.

“No! No, you weren’t kidnapped. I found you actually, underwater. My mother healed you and we took you in and...” There was a brief pause as Caitlin suddenly looked a little awkward, “....ok that doesn’t make it sound any better…”  
_______________

Caitlin handed a cup of tea to Emily before she sat next to her. The last few minutes were spent explaining the events of the previous day, “My mom told me to put something in there that’s supposed to help get rid of any lingering issues.” She said as she took a generous sip of the coffee she had for herself. She absentmindedly commented under her breath, “Ahhh, heaven in drink form.”

“Like what?” Emily faced her after she took a whiff of the warm tea.

Caitlin shrugged after a second. She turned around to face her, “I’m not sure honestly, but it’s just in case. Insurance. She said it’s been decades since she encountered something like this and she was worried about any small side effects.”

“What? Oh! The transformation thing?” Emily asked before she took a sip of tea. It felt good to have warm, soothing liquid inside of her. She closed her eyes momentarily as her body relaxed, “If I didn’t know about mermaids I wouldn’t believe that. Even then it still feels surreal as hell. Was I really a fish?! For three days?”

Caitlin casually laughed, “Don’t blame you. Yeah, you were. Don’t worry, you were back to your normal form when I found you. Don’t ask me what kind of fish though, I wouldn’t know,” She lightly joked in an effort to lighten the mood.

Emily lightly chuckled and teased back, “Probably would if you were a marine biologist.”

“Haha,” There was a comfortable silence between the two before Caitlin spoke up again, “It was really lucky for you and Adam nothing else happened to you. I mean before I found you,” Caitlin somewhat awkwardly added.

“Oh...I can imagine. Some fisherman could’ve caught me or by some other animal,” Emily said, not too fully into this train of thought. She didn’t really want to get further into the what-ifs. It would just horrify her. The important thing was she was found alive and all healed up.

“Yeah, consequences like those are why you have to be careful not to screw up a spell like your friend did. She had the right words but forgot to put in the key ingredient. At least, from what I was told.”

“Something mermaid I assume?” Emily questioned, she was beginning to remember the most recent thing more clearly. She had drank a concoction of what she thought would turn into a mermaid. Instead, all she got was a mental void up until she woke up.

Caitlin nodded, “You have to have something, like a scale or blood of whatever you want to transform into. And then there’s usually a temporary version and a more ‘permanent’ version. You can still be changed back to normal with the latter, but it only can be undone by the person who did the spell in the first place.”

Emily nodded as she took another sip. Suddenly, the same song she heard earlier started playing again. Apparently, it came from Caitlin’s phone. Her mind was in too much of a daze earlier to make the connection.

“That is a...morbid ringtone,” Emily commented with a gesture to said phone.

“It’s true though, human or mermaid. Nothing lasts forever” Caitlin took another drink, a hint of awkwardness in the air. She didn’t want to scare her new friend off with her morbid obsession right off the bat. So she moved onto another topic, “I imagine this isn’t what you envisioned for a trip to Hawaii.”

Emily lightly shook her head, “No, not really. I pictured a nice hotel with Adam. A luau and pretty flower necklaces. Going to the beach with Adam. Or whatever touristy crap visitors do here,” Emily said. Her semi dismissive remark resulted in Caitlin laughing, “As long as it was with Adam...”

“He’ll be here soon,” Caitlin assured her as she put a comforting hand on her back, “When I texted him happy birthday the other day he didn’t really reply back. It felt odd for him, but, um...now it makes sense.”

“Knowing Adam and Rhea I bet they were understandably mad at Veronica. She didn’t do it on purpose though.”

“No but that’s a pretty big damn mistake to make,” Caitlin pointed out. Emily just sighed slightly dejected as she leaned back into the couch, “My parents would rip me apart for days if I’d done the same.”

Emily casually chuckled, “Yeah no kidding. I just wanted to surprise Adam with me in a pretty mermaid tail.” Emily briefly explained with a dejected sigh, “I don’t think I want to eat fish for a few days,” Emily absentmindedly commented. After hearing what just happened to her, the thought of it made her feel more than a bit queasy. Too fresh of a reminder. 


	4. Chapter 4

Honestly, going on an impromptu trip around town had served to be enough of a distraction. She was in Hawaii and Caitlin had offered to give her the non-tourist version so might as well take advantage right? Plus she had more of a legit excuse to go shopping than most visitors. She didn’t really want to be stuck with just one outfit.

Yeah that sounded a little entitled, but she felt it was excusable in this case. She felt dirty in her current clothes considering - transformation aside - she had them on since a few days ago. One or two was definitely needed, plus a bathing outfit because how can one not go to the beach in Hawaii?

Any more clothes purchased after that was just a way to steer herself away from being too focused on things. She was very anxious to reunite with Adam. She just didn’t want to feel like she is some pity partier who can’t enjoy the moment if their love isn’t there. As much as her current situation fucking sucks, it is what it is and she’ll be damned not to take advantage of a little shopping.

The two had just gotten back from the mall. Despite Emily’s concerns over the ethical aspect, Caitlin had magically duplicated some of her money. The money Caitlin already had wasn’t enough so it was a necessity. Plus Emily didn’t want to be that person given that they loaned her money for food already. No way is she going to make things awkward and have them think she was taking advantage.

Next on the agenda was hanging out at the beach. It was a gorgeous day, and it would make things easier when Adam comes. Today was supposed to be the day he would arrive. So far he hadn’t shown up after twenty minutes. Emily was sunbathing while Caitlin was reading a book. In her short time with Caitlin, she learned anything death related was her area of nerdiness.

“What are you reading?” Emily asked as she turned over to her back. She sat up to scour the beach for any sign of Adam.

“Oh it's a book about death rituals around the world. It’s called ‘Dia de los Muertos and other Rituals’.” Caitlin happily replied with a big smile.

“Sounds interesting,” Came the half-hearted response. Damn it, still no sign of him. She didn’t know if it should be a little pathetic that her heart acted like it’s been years since she last saw him. It's just been a few days! Barely a week. Yet her heart longed like it was ten years.

“It is! All the myriad of ways humans treat death...it’s fascinating! And then the different ways people buried the dead; cremation, casket, natural or mummified. Hey did you know there is a group of people in Indonesia where they hang out with the corpse at home before the funeral? They treat them just the same as if they are alive!”

“Oh uhh, good for them. Feels a little…creepy to me,” Emily replied awkwardly. She hoped that didn’t come across as judgemental.

“Well, we grew up in a different culture so we’re not used to it.”

“Makes sense,” Emily commented as she faced Caitlin, “Adam told me mermaids either do burial or a spell that turns them into energies and placed in a special container.”

“That’s what my parents told me too,” Caitlin mentioned after she lightly nodded, “We’re all opting to be buried on land.”

“Oh?” Emily’s interest was piqued enough to take a momentary break from her lookout for Adam.

Caitlin nodded again, “My parents didn’t want anything to do with their parents/village people and their stuffy attitude towards humans so they emigrated up here.”

Just as she finished her sentence, a faint but familiar sound rang through the air. It caught Emily’s attention and she turned around to spot Adam running towards them. He had on a simple turtle printed swim trunks. A burst of happiness and elated joy filled her soul as she shot up to her feet. The whole world just got that much brighter. If that was even possible since it was a bright sunny day to begin with.

“Adam!” Emily cried out joyously, she made a beeline towards him. Caitlin immediately put her book down and followed after. Adam looked especially happy and very much relieved to see her. She eagerly wrapped her arms around him. She melted up against his warm bare skin.

“Emily!” Adam shouted with a bright smile as he wrapped his arms around her. He also couldn’t help but lay the softest kissed on the base of her neck.

Neither one of the two wanted to break the embrace for what felt like the longest time.

“I was even starting to miss you randomly ruining things,” Emily teased as she rested her head on his shoulder. Adam chuckled as he gazed at her. The two gave locked lips as Caitlin caught up to them. The kiss was only broken a few seconds later and Adam gazed at her. His cheeks wet with tears of joy.

Whatever Adam wanted to say next was lost to time as Caitlin just caught up. Actually - to be truthful - he wasn’t sure what to say next. There weren’t enough words to describe the incredible relief of seeing his beloved alive. He knew logically she was after he had gotten the phone, but it was another thing entirely to see it confirmed.

“Thank you so much for taking her in Caitlin,” Adam was immensely grateful.

“Anytime! My mom was the one that fully healed her. She said if we had to wait any longer then it, um, would’ve been more of a hassle to fix. She gave her some special tea to help supplement the healing process.” Caitlin explained.

“Ah, that explains why I didn’t find you both in the water,” Adam said aside with a very soft chuckle. He lovingly ginned and gave Emily a kiss on her forehead.  
This was the best thing anyone involved with this could hope for. 


End file.
